Bill Forsyth by Lloyd Sachs

Bill Forsyth by Lloyd Sachs

One of the most beloved filmmakers of his time, Bill Forsyth (b. 1946) has—with one exception—not directed a feature in more than thirty years. This long silence is all the more remarkable given his meteoric rise: between 1979 and 1983, the Glasgow native crafted four comic gems that helped put Scottish cinema on the map. How did the director of such enduring classics as Gregory’s Girl and Local Hero seemingly vanish from the film world?

It’s tempting to blame his retreat on the painful fallout from Being Human, the troubled Hollywood production starring Robin Williams. But even before that big‑budget flop, the deeply reserved Forsyth wrestled with the discomfort he felt directing—and with audiences who often overlooked the serious themes beneath his offbeat comedies. "I’ve always had a much darker side than most people have perceived," he confided to British critic John Brown.

Through interviews with leading critics and film authorities, Bill Forsyth: Interviews offers a revealing look at the filmmaker’s personal approach to his art, shaped by early encounters with the French New Wave and a youthful stint making industrial films about forestry, fishing, and factories. Forsyth reflects on his debt to auteurs like François Truffaut, Preston Sturges, Jean Renoir, and Jacques Tati, and offers candid insights into his process. These conversations highlight his methods and the underappreciated dimensions of his work, including what Scottish critic Jonathan Murray calls their "comic ingenuity, idiosyncratic narrative structures, and tonal complexity."

Lloyd Sachs is author of the critical biography, T Bone Burnett: A Life in Pursuit. He was a film and jazz columnist and editorial writer for the Chicago Sun-Times; podcast host of Sachs and the Cinema (and the Chicago radio segment of the same name), crime fiction columnist for the Chicago Tribune, senior editor at No Depression, and media columnist for the Chicago Reader. His work has appeared in such publications as Kirkus Reviews, Rolling Stone, the Village Voice, DownBeat, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and JazzTimes.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781496863171
ISBN 10	1496863178
Title	Bill Forsyth
Author	Lloyd Sachs
Series	Conversations With Filmmakers Series
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	University Press of Mississippi
Year published	2026-08-17
Number of pages	192
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.